For computer users, a few mouse clicks could mean the difference between staying online and losing Internet connections this summer. Unknown to most of them, their problem began when international hackers ran an online advertising scam to take control of infected computers around the world.
The group that manages the Internet's domain name system is expected to provide more detail about why it has been unable to re-open a database for those seeking to apply to run a new top-level Internet address. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers shut down its application system for those applying to run a new generic top-level domain.
Movie and television studios failed to convince Australia's High Court that Internet service providers should be punished for illegal video downloads made by their customers. U.S. and Australian studios had challenged a landmark lower court ruling that service providers cannot be held accountable for illegal downloads. The studios wanted the companies to be required to take "reasonable steps" to stop customers from downloading pirated movies.
An Internet privacy advocacy group wants the Federal Communications Commission to release the full report of its investigation of Google's Street View, which collected and stored data from unencrypted wireless networks. The Electronic Privacy Information Center has filed a Freedom of Information Act request to see the commission's full 25-page report, saying it "raised questions about the scope of the FCC's Street View investigation."
The recent omission of China from Apple’s latest list of countries that can expect to get the new iPad has done more in China than leave the fanboys despondent. According to a report from the China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Centre (CIIRC), a government-sponsored NGO, the slow release of the new iPad (unofficially known as the iPad 3) to China, along with continuing scarcity of the iPhone 4S has led to a surge in phishing attacks targeting those desperate enough, or simply not savvy enough, to click phishing attacks targeting those desperate enough, or simply not savvy enough, to click on a link offering an iPad or iPhone for a cheap price.
Apple Inc, Google Inc, Intel Corp and four other technology companies were ordered by a judge to face an antitrust lawsuit claiming they illegally conspired not to poach each other's employees. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California, rejected the companies' bid to dismiss claims brought under the federal Sherman antitrust law and California's own antitrust law, the Cartwright Act.
Not content with Google's $25,000 fine for obstructing a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) investigation into the allegations, a U.S. Congressman and the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) are calling for further investigations of the search giant. "The circumstances surrounding Google’s surreptitious siphoning of personal information leave many unanswered questions," Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) said in a statement.
Tim Berners-Lee, known as the father of the World Wide Web, says Internet users should demand all of their inaccessible data from Facebook, Google, and every other major Web site.
The Android smartphone operating system is a very important asset for Google Inc, but it is not critical, the company's chief executive officer said in courtroom testimony. Google CEO Larry Page took the stand for a second day in a high-stakes legal dispute with Oracle Corp over smartphone technology.
Apple Inc wants to go to trial to defend itself against U.S. government allegations that it conspired with publishers to raise prices of electronic books, a lawyer for the Silicon Valley giant said in court. Two publishers took a similar stance in the first hearing in Manhattan federal court since the anti-trust division of the Department of Justice accused Apple and five publishers of colluding to break up Amazon.com's low-cost dominance of the digital book market.
The chief executives of Silicon Valley giants Google Inc. and Oracle Corp. testified in a San Francisco courtroom, as the companies each told a jury that the other has misused Oracle's Java technology. The dramatic showdown came on the second day of a trial to determine whether Google's Android operating system for mobile devices infringes patents and copyrights associated with Oracle's Java technology.
Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd agreed that their chief executives would participate in settlement talks to try to resolve a patent lawsuit over smartphone and tablet technology, according to a court filing. Apple sued Samsung in the United States last year, saying the South Korean company's Galaxy line of mobile phones and tablets "slavishly" copies the iPhone and iPad. Samsung then countersued Apple.
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. said it has retained the former general counsel of the U.S. Trade Representative to represent and work with the company on its intellectual-property-rights program. Alibaba, which is working to remove one of its units from the U.S. agency's list of markets offering products that allegedly infringe on intellectual property rights, said James Mendenhall will help it implement "new and innovative approaches" to protecting these rights.
Twitter announced what could lead to a reduction of hostilities in the patent wars threatening to engulf Silicon Valley: a pledge to do no evil. The pledge, which could become a kind of Hippocratic Oath for tech companies with patents, gives Twitter employees more control over their inventions -- and, most importantly, promises the patents will only be used for defensive purposes and not to block other companies from innovating.
Twitter is breaking up courtroom journalism into bite-size reports that take shape as fast as a reporter can tap 140 characters into a smartphone. But the micro-blogging site is increasingly putting reporters on a collision course with judges who fear it could threaten a defendant's right to a fair trial.
Google Inc., owner of the world’s most-used Internet search engine, acquired the German rights to the name “G-mail,” according to a filing at the nation’s trademark office. Google, which owns trademark rights to Gmail in more than 60 nations, has been fighting with German businessman Daniel Giersch who won the rights to “G-mail” in 2000.
An Ohio man linked to the hacker collective Anonymous has been charged with hacking into the websites of the Utah Chiefs of Police Association and the Salt Lake City Police Department, then taking credit for the attacks on Twitter, according to a federal indictment. John Anthony Borell III, of Toledo, Ohio, was set for arraignment Monday in federal court in Salt Lake City.
The U.S. and China have been discreetly engaging in "war games" amid rising anger in Washington over the scale and audacity of Beijing-co-ordinated cyber attacks on western governments and big business, the Guardian has learned. State department and Pentagon officials, along with their Chinese counterparts, were involved in two war games last year that were designed to help prevent a sudden military escalation between the sides if either felt they were being targeted. Another session is planned for May.
Opposition to pending cyber-security legislation ramped up today when several high-profile Internet groups joined forces to protest the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act of 2011 (CISPA). A coalition of Internet advocacy groups -- including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), and Reporters Without Borders -- launched "a week of Internet-wide protests", which calls on Web users to tweet their lawmakers with their opposition to the bill.
As opposition to the new Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act begins to grow, protesters are finding themselves without the big players in their corner that they had in the fights over SOPA and PIPA. Companies like Facebook, Intel and Microsoft have come under criticism for supporting the bill.
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The GigaLaw Firm helps companies of all sizes protect their brands online, using domain name dispute policies – such as the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) – and other legal tools available to copyright and trademark owners on the Internet.